docker

Start from node:18-alpine, copy package files first, run npm ci --only=production, then copy application code to preserve layer caching. Use a multi-stage build to compile TypeScript or bundle assets, keeping build tools out of the final image.

Use a builder stage with full toolchains to compile or bundle, then copy only the artifacts into a slim runtime stage like alpine or scratch. A Go binary on scratch can be around 10MB versus hundreds of megabytes with build tools included.

Docker Compose fits local development and simple single-host deployments with a single YAML file. Kubernetes suits large-scale production with automatic scaling and high availability, while Docker Swarm covers small clusters with less complexity than Kubernetes.

Check logs with docker logs and inspect the exit code via docker inspect. Common causes are missing commands, crashed entrypoints, or signal handling issues; debug by overriding the entrypoint with an interactive shell.

Run docker system prune -a --volumes to remove unused containers, images, and volumes, then verify usage with docker system df. Regularly pruning dangling images and stopped containers prevents disk exhaustion.

Bind-mount your source directory into the container and use a named volume for node_modules to avoid overwriting installed dependencies. Run the dev server command, such as npm run dev or uvicorn with --reload, inside the container.